Anguish at £162m cut to school sport

[weezypops]

http://www.essexcountystandard.co.uk/ne ... ool_sport/

MASSIVE spending cuts are threatening school sport across Essex.

The Government has pulled the plug on its annual £162million funding for school sports partnerships, which have formed the backbone of children’s physical Education for the past seven years.

Schools say the loss, due to take effect in March, will deal a blow to lessons and extra-curricular activities.

The Government has also wiped out rules that say each child needs to have at least two hours of compulsory PE a week.

School sports partnerships act as a network where primary and secondary schools are linked to share sporting expertise, facilities, arrange competitions and mediate with local clubs.

The two school sports partnerships representing Colchester and Tendring say they are devastated.

Adam Finch, development manager of Colchester Blackwater School Sports Partnership, said: “I just feel very sad that so many opportunities we’ve worked so hard to get for the children will be lost.

“It’s mainly the primary schools which have benefited, so they stand to lose the most.

“This threatens to send sport in schools back into the doldrums.”

Phil Coleman, head of the PE and dance faculty at Colne Community School, in Brightlingsea, added: “In a time when we are bringing the Olympics to the country, these cuts are ironic.

“The school sports partnerships are the bedrock and the foundation for initiatives like the Olympic legacy.

“Their loss will mean not just a loss to physical education, but a huge collateral loss to the community.”

Children’s minister Tim Loughton said: “We haven’t taken this decision lightly, but it is right to rethink Government’s approach.

“Creating an Olympic legacy must be more than simply investing taxpayers’ cash to meet a centralised, arbitrary five-hours-a week target, which still left low levels of high quality competitive sport in many parts of the country.”

The partnerships in north east Essex are supporting a national petition against the cuts, due to be handed to Education Secretary Michael Gove next month.